Category Archives: England

Review: A DARK REDEMPTION by Stav Sherez

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As my shelves (and digital devices) are quite literally groaning under the weight of police procedural novels set in England I’m not really in the market for another series to follow. But given I still have strong images in my head from the last book I read by Sherez (set in Greece) I couldn’t resist this first instalment of a promised new series even though it’s in a crowded space. It turns out to have been a good decision..

A DARK REDEMPTION opens with three young men taking a trip to Uganda following their university graduation and before they have to knuckle down to jobs and real life. On their travels they make a seemingly random choice which leads them into the clutches of a rebel army and a grim stretch in custody though at this point we don’t learn a lot of the details of what went on. The main part of the story then starts, taking place a dozen or so years later. Jack Carrigan, one of the three men who had travelled to Africa, is a Detective Inspector in London and he is put in charge of the investigation into the brutal murder of a young African student named Grace Okello. But Jack has made enemies on the force and his boss forces Geneva Miller, a woman who has had her own brushes with bureaucracy, to be the DS on the investigation. She is to assist Jack and report back to his superiors about his behaviour and methods. At the start of the investigation the two are wary of each other and also have different ideas about the motivations for the murder – with Jack thinking her violent boyfriend responsible and Geneva wondering if it is somehow linked to Grace’s research into the armed conflict in her native country. But as the case unfolds the two detectives develop a respect for each other and of course narrow down the focus of their investigation.

I was a little wary of the themes this book looked set to tackle given that I started it as the Kony 2012 social media frenzy was in full swing. Happily my fears were unfounded as Sherez deals with the African elements of the story (including the aforementioned Kony) sensitively and intelligently; managing to portray nuances of the situation in both Uganda and amongst the displaced African community living in England that you won’t find in most mainstream media. Some of the segments of the book are violent but it never feels at all gratuitous and the story would not feel authentic if there were not some level of violence given what we know about the recent real-world history that provides the story’s backdrop. Sherez uses several methods for imparting the relevant information about Ugandan history and politics and in combination these are quite the lesson in how authors of this type of novel can do such things without making the reader feel as if they are in a lecture theatre.

I agree with Sarah at Crimepieces who wrote that Carrigan’s maverick status was depicted in an understated way as that is exactly how I felt. Too many crime books these days appear to be working from a list of quirks and anti-authority behaviours to give their protagonists and there is a tendency to go overboard or have no real reason for the traits displayed. Jack is not at the extreme end of the scale and any foibles he does have make sense within the context that Sherez provides. There are also quite a few hints of secrets still to be explored in both his and Miller’s lives in what I hope will be some future instalments of the series as I enjoyed both characters and would happily read more of their exploits.

On one level I suppose this book is ‘just’ police procedural novel but it is a superior example of the genre. Both thoughtful and thought-provoking A DARK REDEMPTION manages to explore a complex issue without either sensationalising them or treating readers like morons and for that alone I applaud it. The fact that it also provides a suspense-filled mystery and a decent resolution is icing on this excellent cake. To undoubtedly stretch the dessert metaphor a little too far the narration by English actor David Thorpe is the delicious chocolate sprinkles on the icing :)

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Sidenote: I know that authors normally have little influence over their book covers so it’s unfair to include this in the review proper (and I have not taken the matter into account) but this cover couldn’t be less relevant to the book if it tried. The near ubiquitous shadowy silhouettes that are much beloved of crime fiction marketing/publishing types these days tell us nothing to make us pick up the book or to mark it out as unique and, now that I’ve read it, don’t even hint at anything going on within the story. If a cover is going to be this irrelevant why bother?

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A DARKER REDEMPTION has been reviewed at Crimepieces and It’s A Crime.

I reviewed an earlier, unrelated book by Sherez set in Greece called THE BLACK MONASTERY in the early days of this blog.

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My rating 4/5
Narrator David Thorpe
Publisher Audible Ltd [2012]
ASIN B007D56PK4 (downloaded from audible.com)
Length 11 hours 11 minutes
Format audio (mp3)
Book Series #1 in the Carrigan and Miller series
Source I bought it
Creative Commons Licence
This work by http://reactionstoreading.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Review: Trick of the Dark by Val McDermid

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Having complained often and at length about authors who write the same book over and over again I chose to TRICK OF THE DARK up precisely because it was clear from the disparity of opinion about it that, if nothing else, McDermid had written a different book from her previous work. My main exposure to her writing has been through the Tony Hill books which are a bit bloody for my taste though I do like her writing so I was keen to try more of her standalone novels.

There were lots of things I enjoyed about TRICK OF THE DARK though my relationship with the book didn’t start well as the main character, psychiatrist Charlie Flint, is angst-ridden about whether or not to cheat on her wife Maria with another woman. I groaned audibly I think as the ‘to cheat or not to cheat’ storyline is a particular annoyance of mine both in real life and in fiction (cheat if you must but don’t bend my ear about your vacillation is my motto). But even though that thread does run throughout the novel I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of this complicated and fast-paced book.

As well as considering embarking on an affair, Charlie is in professional disgrace as the book opens due to an assessment she had made in a criminal case. Although something of a side thread I found this quite fascinating as it explored the notion of guilt and whether or not people can or should be prevented by society from committing crimes they’ve only thought about. One morning she receives some curious news clippings in the mail about a murdered bridegroom she doesn’t know. After some plot contrivances she works out that the clippings have been sent by one of her tutors from her time at Oxford and the widower of the bridegroom is Magda, whom Charlie knew as Maggot when she used to babysit her some years ago. When she gets in touch with the tutor, Corinna, she is is asked to investigate Magda’s husband’s murder. Corinna doesn’t think the two people who have been found guilty of the murder were responsible, instead she blames Magda’s new love interest, a woman called Jay who is also a former student of Corinna’s and is now a very wealthy business woman. Corinna tells Charlie that if she does not investigate and find evidence of Jay’s guilt Corinna will do whatever it takes to protect her daughter from the woman she perceives as evil.

That’s about as simply as I can summarise the early part of the book and it gets more complicated from that point on but it’s surprisingly easy to follow. Though perhaps that’s just because McDermid has the skill to make such twists and turns look easy. The book does require the suspension of disbelief but I had no trouble doing that, quickly getting caught up in the whydunnit aspects of the novel and the lives of its three main characters.

In some ways I thought Charlie the least interesting of the three (though admit that’s mainly because I was bored by the whole cheating thread). Jay Stewart, whose point of view much of the story is told from, would be intriguing I think even if you weren’t always wondering in the back of your mind if she is a serial killer. She has already published one book, a misery memoir of her horrid childhood, to much acclaim and has been persuaded to write a second biography. This volume will focus on her more recent life of ‘triumph over tragedy’ and we learn about her life as she writes different chapters though readers are always aware of the unreliable nature of Jay’s ‘recollections’. It would be a terrific sign of society’s maturity to be able to write about this book without mentioning that the three main characters (and several minor ones) are lesbians but the women’s sexuality is a significant factor in the stories. Their various experiences of coming out (or not doing so) and being on the receiving end of homophobia significantly colours the lives of all the lesbians in the story and so is an integral part of the book. Unlike some of the more vitriolic reviews on Good Reads and Amazon I thought this aspect of the book was handled sensitively and intelligently.

TRICK OF THE DARK managed to draw me into subjects and worlds I have no experience of including the cloistered atmosphere of Oxford college and its lingering pull on all who attend, as well as the tribulations of being gay and hated for that fact (in my bubble world I like to think we’re all grown up about such things now but clearly not). Having had somewhat ambivalent expectations of this book through reading very positive and very negative reviews I was pleasantly surprised and would recommend the book to those who can suspend their disbelief in the interests of a ripping, and thought-provoking yarn.

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TRICK OF THE DARK has been reviewed at Crime Scraps, Euro Crime, Euro Crime (2), Petrona and Savidge Reads

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My rating 4/5
Author website http://www.valmcdermid.com/index.html
Publisher Hachette Digital [2010]
ISBN 9780748117017
Length 362 pages
Format eBook (ePub)
Book Series standalone
Source I bought it
Creative Commons Licence
This work by http://reactionstoreading.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Review: A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths

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In the fourth book to feature forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway the mystery starts early on. Ruth has been asked to attend a local museum for the opening of a coffin which was found at a construction site and is thought to contain the remains of a medieval Bishop. She arrives to find the museum’s curator lying on the floor. Not being certain if the man is alive or not she phones an ambulance and the police. The man is pronounced dead on his arrival at hospital and the police investigation steps up a notch which introduces DI Harry Nelson to the action.

Of course anyone who has read the previous novels in this serious would have been waiting for this meeting as Ruth and Harry have a personal history which was left at a rather dramatic point at the end of The House at Sea’s End. I’m trying not to give spoilers to this or previous books so I won’t say much more, other than to reflect that I thought Griffiths did a good job of capturing the awkwardness realistically. She’s also done a good job of encapsulating the essence of the personal lives of Ruth, Harry and their friends and colleagues so this would be a decent place to start the series if you are interested in trying it out but don’t feel you have the time or energy to read the three earlier books.

The mystery element in this novel is stronger than has been the case in the previous novels which, while entertaining, were all fairly easy to stay ahead of, especially for seasoned crime readers. Here there are several threads that need to be sorted out including the very basic question of whether or not the museum curator was murdered or not. There do prove to be two potential motives including a possible connection to claims being made for the repatriation of Australian Aboriginal bones and skulls in the museum’s custody. Ruth’s old friend Cathbad is a member of a group which has requested the items be returned to Australia for a proper burial, as is her new next door neighbour who is an academic visiting from Australia. He is also a member of the same tribal group to which the bones belong so he has a personal stake in the repatriation of the items. The issue of such repatriation is becoming increasingly vitriolic in the real world but Griffiths handled its complexity and sensitivity well. In particular Ruth’s needing time to weigh up the pros and cons on a personal and professional level rang very true. I’m always a little wary of ‘foreign’ books which throw in Australian characters or tackle other subjects I am familiar with but Elly Griffiths has done well on both counts here.

It’s fair to say that most fans of this series are at least as interested in the personal stories of Ruth, Harry and friends as they are in the whodunnit aspects of the books and those fans will not be disappointed with this instalment. Ruth’s daughter has her first birthday in this book but Ruth still frets about her mothering skills and seems a little preoccupied at times so she is not quite the dominant character in this book as she has been in the past and Harry’s dry humour is also quiet for a while when he undergoes a particularly nasty trauma. While I did miss the presence of my favourite two people a little, there were many developments in the lives of the lesser characters to keep me interested. I have quite a soft spot for Cathbad who is a lab technician at Ruth’s university but is also a Druid and seems willing to participate in any vaguely spiritual ritual he thinks suitable for a given situation which often has unforseen circumstances.

I look forward with much anticipation to the arrival on my doorstep of the annual instalment of this series and, once again, the reading experience lived up to my expectations, providing a very enjoyable and satisfying read with just a hint of what might happen in the next book.. I read A ROOM FULL OF BONES in a single day (again the housework was neglected) and had a very contented smile on my face upon completion, you can’t ask for better than that.

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A Room Full of Bones has been reviewed at Euro Crime

I have reviewed the first three books in the series: The Crossing Places, The Janus Stone and The House at Sea’s End

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My rating 3.5/5
Publisher Quercus [2012]
ISBN 9781849163699
Length 344 pages
Format trade paperback
Book Series #4 in the Ruth Galloway series
Source I bought it
Creative Commons Licence
This work by http://reactionstoreading.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Review: The Burning by Jane Casey

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If I had a dollar for every time someone has made some variation on the “you must be twisted to read all those books about serial killers” remark I’d be a rich woman. Well, moderately wealthy anyway. The comment always makes me grind my teeth as I try to respond politely when what I really want to say is “you are a moron if you think that’s all crime fiction is about”. I avoid serial killer books with the same dedication as I avoid religious proselytisers and green peas and would not, therefore, have picked up this book (with its blurb and cover that all scream serial killer) if I didn’t implicitly trust Maxine who reviewed the book at Petrona.

As the book opens we are indeed introduced to the presence of a serial killer in London. A drunk girl gets into a taxi but soon starts to feel something is wrong. The car isn’t going in the right direction and there are other hints something is amiss…she has heard about the killer named by the media as The Burning Man who has killed four women and she worries that she is in the car with him. When DC Maeve Kerrigan is called out in the early hours of the morning to the resultant crime scene it appears the killer she and the large investigative team assigned to the case have been looking for has finally been caught red-handed. But then another body is found and it too appears to be a victim of the same killer. The DI in charge of the case is unsure enough about this victim’s connection to the other cases to make sure that Maeve investigates the new case as independently as possible, though he doesn’t reassign the case because if it should turn out to be another victim of ‘their’ killer he doesn’t want there to be any legal problems with having had doubts about the case at all. This was one of the aspects of the story that made me feel quite sorry for the police and all the second guessing they must have to do and it made me wonder how often issues like this have a detrimental impact on real investigations.

All of that setup doesn’t take very long at all and so readers soon leave behind the hunt for the serial killer and follow instead Maeve’s investigation into the death of Rebecca Haworth who was an Oxford graduate and a successful PR woman. At this point we also meet Rebecca’s best friend, Louise, and from this point onwards some chapters are told from her perspective which provides a nice contrast to the scenes which unfold from Maeve’s point of view. Between the two we are slowly shown a picture of Rebecca that was a little different from first appearances and there does not seem to be a shortage of people who might have wanted her dead if she does indeed turn out not to be the Burning Man’s latest victim. The depiction of all three woman – Maeve, Louise and Rebecca – is skilfully done and their interlocking stories made the book fly by for me.

Although the book is more of a psychological suspense than anything else there are also elements of the police procedural too, especially the office politics of the work. Maeve is subject to relatively mild sexism and racism from her colleagues but she also has an intelligent and fair boss which provides a nice balance. Her personal life is not the picture of health unfortunately, as her wealthy boyfriend can’t quite understand the demands of her job, and this thread also plays out credibly across the novel.

I did find the resolution to this novel fairly easy to spot but I did enjoy watching how Casey would get us to the end I expected. The plotting is certainly logical and did have some nicely unpredictable twists along the way and the way that readers are drawn into the lives of the characters makes this well worth reading. If you’re looking for a book about the hunt for a serial killer you’ll need to go elsewhere but if you’re after a thoughtfully layered novel of suspense then you could do a lot worse than read The Burning.

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The Burning has been reviewed at Euro Crime, Petrona and The Book Whsiperer

I’m counting this towards my Irish Reading challenge as the author is Irish and one of the two main protagonists is of Irish heritage and this issue is addressed as one of the minor plot threads of the novel. Having read two books by male authors for this challenge I was looking for female Irish crime writers who set their books in Ireland and so far have come up blank so this will have to count.

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My rating 3.5/5
Publisher Ebury Digital [2010]
ISBN 9781409005018
Length 327 pages
Format eBook (ePub)
Book Series standalone (?).
Source I bought it

This post is published at http://reactionstoreading.com if you are seeing it at another site then it has been stolen and/or used entirely without permission.

Review: Evil Intent by Kate Charles

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Callie Anson is a newly ordained Anglican Priest and has just received her first posting as Curate of All Saints’ Church in Paddington, London. Recovering from the breakup of a relationship and coming to terms with her demanding new job (which includes more than its fair share of abuse as some people do not take well to the idea of female priests) are enough to deal with but she is soon embroiled in a murder investigation too. A hardline conservative priest is strangled and one of Callie’s closest friends is the prime, indeed only, suspect.

As my memory resembles a sieve I have no clue what prompted me to mooch this book nearly three years ago but I am immensely pleased that I did. Even without the mystery element (which was perfectly entertaining in its own right) this book has a lot to offer. You might not think you’d be absorbed by a depiction of the modern Anglican church and its internal political issues (including the ordination of women and the acceptance of openly homosexual clergy) but Charles has made them utterly compelling reading. She manages to be respectful of an institution she clearly loves but does not fawn or fail to criticize elements of doctrine or collective behaviour that she finds outdated and/or offensive. Most importantly though she does all this as part of an intriguing story, not as some political diatribe on the various issues raised. I wish that all the authors I read who have something political to say were equally well-versed in the art of showing (not telling).

Another aspect of the novel I found fascinating was its depiction of the media and the relationship between the police and the media. There is a journalist character here who drives much of the plot development and she, or at least her actions, are at times horrific, being entirely devoid of journalistic ethics, fact checking and the like. At one point in particular she shreds someone’s career based solely on one person’s claims without, it appears, any attempt (or even need) to check the claims made or interview the person who was the subject of them. I don’t know enough about either English law or media to know if this is realistic but if it is then it is a very sad indictment on the English fourth estate. I know our media here in Australia isn’t perfect but they wouldn’t quite get away with that.

The mystery plot is almost a minor component then of what made this book interesting for me but that’s not to say it wasn’t interesting too. While police could only see one possible suspect readers were provided motivations for several more potential culprits in what was something of an old-fashioned whodunnit. Even (especially?) among the various clergy and their families there were plenty of secrets which might have warranted killing someone in order to keep. Charles teases these out adroitly and keeps readers guessing until the end.

In some ways this book is quite scathing of the institution that is the Anglican church but it is also reverential at times. Various characters describe what drew them to the church or what aspects keep them coming back, even when they don’t agree with everything going on from a political standpoint, and I liked the balance this provided. It made the book much more compelling than a one-sided polemic would have been. I really had no idea what to expect when I plucked this book from the depths of my TBR pile and was pleasantly surprised to find a thought-provoking and engaging book which I gobbled up in a single, late night sitting.

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My rating 4.5/5
Author website http://www.katecharles.com/
Publisher Poisoned Pen Press [2005]
ISBN 9781590582008
Length 339 pages
Format hardcover
Book Series #1 in the Callie Anson trilogy
Source I mooched it

This post is published at http://reactionstoreading.com if you are seeing it at another site then it has been stolen and/or used entirely without permission.

Review: Second Violin by John Lawton

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Second Violin attempts, I think, to be something of an epic; somewhat audaciously depicting many aspects of war time life both in continental Europe and in Britain and delving into all classes and communities.  From the Austrian/German Anschluss in 1938 the book jumps through a series of seminal historical events including Kristallnacht, England’s declaration of War,  the internment of various classes of ‘alien’, the London Blitz and so on. Somehow inveigling their way into all of these happenings are the Troy family which includes Russian émigré Sir Alex Troy, now a retired newspaper baron, and his two sons Rod, a journalist, and Freddie a police constable. One or other of them is centrally involved in all of these events (and then some) as the book hurtles, at pace, along. At about the three quarter mark there is a cursory police investigation into some curious deaths but potential readers should believe the author when he says the series that this book is part of is not crime fiction.

Surprisingly (perhaps) it wasn’t the lack of a mystery element to the novel that bothered me but rather its epic scope. I think I’d rather have seen a few events or incidents teased out with more depth than have an entire wartime experience condensed into 15 hours of listening. On multiple occasions just as I was becoming interested in some aspect of the story – a Jewish tailor’s flight from Vienna for example or the experiences of the fascinating mixture of characters in an internment camp on the Isle of Mann – I’d be whisked away to some other drama. Individually all of these events could probably power their own novel so I felt a bit cheated to have them all crammed into the one book. I was reminded a little of being back in school when history text books just skimmed the surface and threw up a lot of names and dates. What I wanted then and want still is to get behind all the facts and figures and with Second Violin I found myself tantalisingly close to doing that but never quite getting there.

This doesn’t stop the book from being both entertaining and insightful though. The process of identifying which ‘aliens’ would be locked up for the war’s duration, and how that process worked, was, for example, depicted as the farce we now know it to have been. The parallels with more recent political skirmishes are well-drawn although, I’m certain, would be entirely unseen by any powers-that-be who happened upon the book.

I did not find any of the Troy family particularly engaging as characters, feeling they’re all a little too unrealistic to be the kind of people I could truly grow to love. I admit this is unfair on my part as I am quite smitten by Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody who is at least equally as unrealistic and potentially allegorical as the Troy brothers and I can’t really put my finger on why I didn’t take to the Troys more but there’s not a lot I can do about it. I adored some of the other characters in the novel though, including the aforementioned Austrian tailor and his part-Polish, mostly Cockney boss.

Unfortunately and unusually there was an aspect of the narration of the audio book that was a bit off-putting too. There didn’t seem to be a lot of rhyme or reason to the voices, in particular the accents, that the narrator chose to use. So Sigmund Freud (one of many real life characters to make a cameo appearance in the novel) has a vaguely Viennese accent while the German foot-soldier who helps the tailor escape has a Cockney accent. Most peculiar.

Overall then I liked this book but didn’t love it. Apart from being a bit too shallow for my personal preference I think the epic scope of the story resulted in a lack of narrative focus. You couldn’t possibly suggest that the investigation of the deaths that Troy carries out is the book’s focus as this doesn’t occupy more than a small fraction of the story and doesn’t start until close to the end. So to me Second Violin read more like a series of vignettes of ‘highlights’ of the wartime experience than a closely woven narrative and my preference will always be for the latter.

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Head to Crime Scraps for a much more positive review of the book

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My rating 3/5
Narrator Lewis Hancock
Publisher Oakhill [2008]
ISBN N/A (downloaded from audible.com)
Length 15 hours 9 minutes
Format audio (mp3)
Book Series chronologically #1 in the Frederick Troy series, though published #6
Source I bought it

This post is published at http://reactionstoreading.com if you are seeing it at another site then it has been stolen and/or used entirely without permission.

Review: Blood Atonement by Dan Waddell

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Blood Atonement is the second book in Dan Waddell’s series featuring English genealogist Nigel Barnes, who once again teams up with police who are investigating a current crime which has links to the past. The book opens with police called to Queen’s Park, London where Katie Drake has been gruesomely murdered while her 14-year old daughter appears to be missing. Not sure at first whether she has been taken by the killer or indeed is the killer the team soon find similarities to an earlier case and their investigation then requires they understand more about the family background of Katie Drake, whose past seems something of a closed book.

There will come a point at which the premise of this series, (genealogist working with police) will become unbelievable, but with only two books so far the twist on police procedurals still feels fresh. Waddell weaves the historical element into the present-day story well especially well here, giving a plausible motivation for the killings that doesn’t rely on serial killer-style fetishism. He also does a good job incorporating genealogical aspects of the narrative into the main narrative and (this being one of few subjects I know something about having been an archivist in a former life) gets it all right.

The DCI heading up the case is Grant Foster who was injured rather badly in the events of The Blood Detective and this is his first case back after a long recuperation. He is still feeling the aches and pains (and is meant to be working to a rather stringent return to work plan) of his injuries but is keen to get back into the swing of things. As a way of showing Foster is not quite the full-time curmudgeonly grump he seems in the second half of the novel he meets a young boy who is in potential danger and, in spite of himself, becomes quite attached to the lad. This is a sweet yet quite funny thread. Sergeant, Heather Jenkins continues to work together with Barnes though the personal relationship between the two that appeared to be going somewhere at the end of the first book has gone cold when this one opens. Barnes is not particularly happy about this but he puts it aside to get the job done and the two dart around the country (and the globe) happily enough. There’s a nice tangent in which Barnes is asked to appear in a pseudo-documentary style TV show that adds a bit of levity to the growing body count.

I like the combination of history and genealogical investigation in this series and the particular emphasis of this book (which I’m deliberately saying nothing about to avoid spoilers) is one of those subjects I always enjoy seeing explored. All the elements of a good who (and why) dunnit come together well here with plenty of suspects, a handful of red herrings and even a crazy old lady in an asylum. Jolly good reading.

Not the author’s fault: I read this via the Kobo app on my iPad which turned out to be a fairly frustrating experience of which I will speak further in a different post. Definitely my least favourite eReading experience to date but I tried very hard to keep my nasty thoughts about that distinct from my thoughts about the book itself.

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Blood Atonement has been reviewed at Aust Crime Fiction and Mysteries in Paradise

 

I reviewed the first book in the series, The Blood Detective, last year

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My rating 3.5/5
Publisher Penguin [2009]
ISBN 9780141040998
Length I don’t have a clue because the daft Kobo app is more interested in tweeting about my reading than telling me how many effing pages there are in the effing book (not that I’m annoyed or anything)
Format eBook (ePub)
Source I bought it

Review: The Vault by Ruth Rendell

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I’ve written before of my teenage self’s rejection of Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford series and my subsequent luke warm appreciation of the books, but last year I rather enjoyed book 22 of the series, The Monster in the Box, though I did think it the end of the series. I was curious then when a 23rd full length Wexford novel was released this year and when an edition narrated by the excellent Nigel Anthony became available I couldn’t resist.

Reg Wexford has retired and he is enjoying some aspects of his new lifestyle, especially living part-time in the converted coach house in the grounds of his daughter’s north London home. He and his wife Dora enjoy the change of scenery from their home in Kingsmarkham and Wexford in particular has taken to having long walks around the city (Dora gets her exercise at a gym). However Wexford does miss being a policeman so when and old colleague, Tom Ede, asks him to act as a specialist advisor on a curly case Reg jumps at the opportunity. Four bodies have been discovered in the dis-used coal hole of a house in St John’s Wood; forensic evidence indicates 3 of the bodies have been there for about 12 years while the fourth has only been there for 2 years. Given the house has changed hands several times over this period police are somewhat baffled by the case, especially as there is not much to go on in the way of identification.

In most crime fiction some suspension of disbelief is required and here it is that a senior policeman with all manner of resources at his disposal would need (or even consider) relying on a retired person for the resolution to a case however it is made just about believable when the prior relationship between the two is described as being something of a mentoring one. Stretching the credibility further though is the wide acceptance of Wexford by Ede’s younger subordinates, none of whom slow the slightest hint of being miffed at being lumbered with the ageing Wexford as interviewing partner/meddler. Such acceptance of the wisdom of the older person is certainly not my experience of the modern workplace.

However, it’s not that hard to put this aside and become immersed in this gentle but satisfyingly complex tale complete with a nicely observed take on several aspects of modern life. One of the things I appreciated most about this book, and its predecessor, was the well-rounded sense we get of Wexford’s personal life including his various familial relationships and his friendship with his old colleague Mike Burden who he has a drink with each time he goes back to Kingsmarkham. A couple of years ago I read the very first Wexford book, From Doon with Death, and I was struck by how little of the personal side of the characters we saw. Clearly a lot has changed in the 40+ years that Rendell has been writing this series. We see the gentle side of Wexford with his various grandchildren and also the distraught parent shines through when one of his daughters is severely injured. As far as the case goes Wexford struggles sometimes with having no official role, he even goes so far as to lament that he is not like the famous amateur detectives of fiction such as Hercule Poirot and Peter Wimsey. However, his imagination is captured by the puzzle of the case and I enjoyed the way he was depicted as figuring out various aspects of the problem, using new technology where appropriate and old-fashioned interviewing techniques when that was called for.

Another thoroughly enjoyable aspect of the book is its presentation of London as something of a character in its own right. Via Wexford’s walks (and bus rides, taxi trips etc) we’re treated to an eclectic but quite delightful picture of the city. There are observations about particular buildings, the changes brought by waves of migration and the way a place can go from being a mansion to a slum (and back again) over time.

There are things that don’t quite work about the novel too. The idea that a senior policeman could have retired within the last year or two having never sent an email seems utterly preposterous for example and the resolution of the case at the heart of the novel is a bit contrived. But the character studies and observations about the life of a newly retired man make up for these minor deficiencies and I can recommend this book to both fans of the series and those unfamiliar with the characters as you really don’t need to have read the rest of the novels to enjoy this one.

I do have to say something about the editing though and not in the way that I usually do when I just want words cut out. Here the book is not too long but it is very poorly edited with names of characters being different in different places, information being repeated unnecessarily (we’re twice told in some detail about the layout of the coach house for example), a character talking of something before the fact is revealed in the narrative and several other errors. At first I thought it was me as I was listening to the book (superbly narrated by Nigel Anthony) but after laboriously re-listening to several passages I realised I had remembered properly and it was the book itself which contained the rather alarming number of errors.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The Vault has been reviewed at Petrona

Apparently the book is a kind of sequel to one of Rendell’s non-Wexford books, A Sight For Sore Eyes, which appears to tell the story of the events of the first murders which result in the bodies found in this novel. I suspect if you’ve read that book (I haven’t but have read the blurb) and can remember its plot you won’t find much suspense in The Vault

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

My rating 3.5/5
Narrator Nigel Anthony
Publisher AudioGO [2011]
ISBN N/A downloaded from audible.com
Length 8 hours 41 minutes
Format audio (mp3)
Source I bought

Review: Sister by Rosamund Lupton

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7

Sister is narrated by Beatrice, a twenty-something woman who has flown home to London from her life in New York because her younger sister, twenty-one year old Tess, has gone missing. Beatrice, or Bee as Tess would call her, writes a letter to her sister which in part describes the events surrounding her disappearance and in part is a memoir of their sisterhood, warts and all.

The book is basically a love letter from one sister to another and in that context it is a superb piece of writing. It delves into all the nuances of the relationship; the shared memories (good and bad), the slights (real and imagined), the words that were said and those that would have been taken back should the universe allow. It is a marvellous portrait of both the bond between the two sisters and the grief one feels at the unexpected disappearance of the other.

Where Tess is fun-loving, gregarious and artistic, Beatrice is reserved, seeks security and does not normally stand up for herself but over the course of the story Beatrice goes through a fairly fundamental shift in her personality which is, again, credibly drawn out. We also see Beatrice develop a deeper understanding of her mother’s motivations for various actions and behaviour and this relationship too is an interesting one to watch as it develops into one of adult equals more than parent and child.

I must admit I found the whodunnit element of the book less successful. It was so clunky in a couple of places I actually wondered someone (author or publisher) had pushed to squeeze the manuscript more deeply into a genre (I thought the prominently positioned pull quote from Jeffrey Deaver on the edition I read was serving the same, somewhat misguided, purpose). I’m out of touch with what’s hot in publishing circles right now but I think this would have been just as good a book, perhaps an even better one, without this somewhat clumsy element.

Nevertheless I enjoyed the book as a whole because the relationship of the sisters is depicted with a finesse and thoughtfulness you rarely see, particularly from a début author. I also had the added bonus of an outstanding narration of the audio book by Juanita McMahon. I’d read the first chapter or so of the book in print form (on someone else’s kindle) before reaching the top of the library’s audio queue (long before I was ever going to get near the top of the print queue). McMahon’s depiction of Bee was just as I had imagined.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Reviews of the book abound but I’d caution that many of them give away far more of the plot than is warranted (yes I’m talking to you NY Times). Naturally you’ll find a lovely and thoroughly un-spoilerish review at Petrona

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My rating 3.5/5
Author website http://www.rosamundlupton.com/
Narrator Juanita McMahon
Publisher W F Howes [2010]
ISBN 9781407469188
Length 12 hours 45 minutes
Format audio (CD)
Book Series standalone
Source borrowed from the library

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Review: The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn

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7

Frank Allcroft is a presenter on a regional English news program based in Birmingham and this novel is, in a roundabout way, his story. He is married to Andrea, has a 12 year-old daughter, Mo, whom he adores, has recently lost his best friend in a hit and run accident and struggles to let go of the past. This manifests itself in little ways, such as his inability to throw away even the most unfashionable clothing items lurking in his wardrobe, and bigger ways too as he campaigns to save the buildings his architect father built in the city’s post-war boom which are now being pulled down for a new era’s landmarks. Frank is also becoming interested in (or obsessed with depending on your point of view) the people he reports on who die alone and even attends some of their funerals. This habit leads Frank to become an investigator of sorts as he attempts to unearth some family or friends of a particular man who died alone who has a connection, albeit vague, to Frank himself.

I loved this book (almost as much as O’Flynn’s first novel What Was Lost which I read earlier this year). It somehow manages to be sad without being unrelentingly depressing and so was a delight to read, unlike some other books I’ve read recently which just seem to wallow in a single tone of unending misery. Like most lives I suppose Frank’s has its ups and downs and we are exposed to both. His relationship with his father was distant due to his father’s obsession with his work and his enduring legacy for the city but to counterbalance this we also see that he had a good relationship with his mother, especially on her good days when they would have absurd tea parties and other fun. His mother is still alive and is in an assisted living centre as this book opens, which also offers scope for a mixture of sadness and humour. In the end I thought I had a terrifically well-rounded picture of Frank and his foibles and if he does not inspire love I think most readers will like and identify with some aspects of his life. The other characterisations, though not as fully-formed, are equally engaging and thoughtful. Frank’s friend Phil is one of the most beautifully drawn but saddest people I have ever met in fiction.

The story seems like it will be a simple one at the outset but there is a complexity in the way that it tackles a range of contemporary issues. One of these is society’s (or at least media’s) obsession with appearances over substance. This is beautifully observed via the inclusion of a reality television show called Tough Love which is hosted by Frank’s friend’s widow and which his daughter adores. Some of the saddest moments of the book take place as a manipulative episode is dissected before us, but O’Flynn offsets this by incorporating a warm humour into the thread with Mo’s innocent misinterpretation of some aspects of reality television. The dumbing-down of televised news is also explored,  offering a couple of genuinely laugh-out-loud moments in addition to the overall bitterness that viewers (and even presenters) are treated like simpletons in these unenlightened times. The nature of ageing and the constant tension between remembering the past while looking forward at both a personal and social level are other subjects drawn out as part of this gentle but quite powerful story.

I’m not sure what the rules are for deciding a writer is a ‘favourite’ but if it’s permissible to do so based on only two books then Catherine O’Flynn is definitely a new favourite author of mine. Having adored her first book, What Was Lost , only a few months ago I wanted to wait longer before jumping into this second novel but a few days ago I found myself in something of a melancholy frame of mind and seemingly irresistibly drawn to the book. I am now equally thrilled to have read it and sad that I don’t still have it to look forward to. It has a strong sense of its place and time, very natural-feeling characters who leap off the page and a very accessible but intelligent writing style and I highly recommend it. If you happen to be a fan of audio books you will enjoy Michael Tudor Barnes’ excellent narration which matches the warmth and sadness of the novel in exactly the right way.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The News Where You Are has been reviewed at Petrona and The Black Sheep Dances

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My rating 4.5/5
Narrator Michael Tudor Barnes
Publisher ISIS Audio books [2010]
ISBN 9781445006499
Length8 hours 20 minutes
Format audio (CD)
Book Series standalone
Source I borrowed it from the library